[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Scientists have developed the world's first mini brains in a breakthrough they hope could revolutionize neuroscience.The 3D organs - which are about the size of a grain of rice - were grown in a lab using human fetal brain tissue from healthy abortion material.
Scientists at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in the Netherlands aimed to grow a a brain in early-mid development and so used the brain tissue from aborted fetus' that were in the gestational period of weeks 12 through 15.
The team was surprised to find that the fetal brain tissue was vital to growing a mini brain.
Until now, when growing other mini organs, scientists would break down original tissues into single cells by using embryonic or pluripotent stem cells to grow and replicate specific areas of the brain.
This discovery led scientists to consider using the mini-organ to model brain cancer and specifically focus on how it develops in children in the hope that it will lead to a cure.